Growing for Good receives 2025 Green Globe award

Growing for Good, a program that helps local farmers supply hunger relief agencies with fresh produce, has received King County’s highest honor for environmental stewardship.

The 2025 Green Globe Award for leaders in the local food economy went to the program, a collaboration between PCC Community Markets, the Neighborhood Farmers Markets and Harvest Against Hunger. Growing for Good was founded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when farmers markets were temporarily shut down and farmers lost outlets for their crops while demand was rising for services at food banks and related services.

Funded largely by community donations — including roundups at the register at all PCC stores and monthly contributions from supporters — farmers are matched with partners based on what each agency needs for their clients and what the farms can grow.

Participants, ranging from neighborhood food banks to community meal programs and mutual aid organizations, receive fresh, high-quality, culturally relevant produce that is hard for them to otherwise purchase, while farmers receive up-front payments early in the season, at a time when they generally incur expenses but don’t have regular sources of farm income.

The program was praised at the King County ceremony for being tailored to meet each community’s needs, “reducing food insecurity while supporting the local agricultural economy.”

During the first five years of the program, more than $660,000 was raised by the community and provided directly to 22 different local farms who delivered more than 230,000 pounds of fresh, local produce to 25 hunger relief agencies improving food access while strengthening local agriculture.

In 2025 alone, PCC shoppers have contributed $464,000 to support the program to date. As Rachel Tefft, PCC’s senior manager of community food systems, wrote to participants, “Growing for Good is only possible through collaboration- thank you all for your part in making this possible!”